


Comfort

by Chromi



Category: One Piece
Genre: Anal Sex, Canon Universe, Comfort Sex, Consensual Sex, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 11:35:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19333741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chromi/pseuds/Chromi
Summary: "Shanks is insistent when Marco turns to leave the funeral with the rest of his remaining crew. Something catches at his heart as he watches the new captain of the Whitebeard pirates retreat down the hill, shoulders rounded forward in defeat and head hanging to hide the grief that was so clear there."





	Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> This heavily implies that Marco/Ace were a couple before the outcome of the war.
> 
> This is just a little something I've been thinking about for years; I could quite happily spend a solid 10k on this idea, but writing Marco in a state of grief and with someone who isn't Ace is painful (and probably not very popular).
> 
> Liberties were taken with the aftermath of Marineford.

Shanks is insistent when Marco turns to leave the funeral with the rest of his remaining crew. Something catches at his heart as he watches the new captain of the Whitebeard pirates retreat down the hill, shoulders rounded forward in defeat and head hanging to hide the grief that was so clear there.

He follows after him quickly, catching him by the wrist and holding firmly, stopping the taller man in his tracks. He doesn’t hesitate when Marco looks back at him, confused as to what Shanks could possibly want at a time like this; surely all that needed to be said had already been spoken.

“Come back with me to my ship,” Shanks gasps, tone almost pleading, to Marco’s amazement. “Just for one night. You can go back to your crew in the morning. We don’t know when we’ll see each other again, after all.”

And Marco obliges, much to both their immense shock. Marco informs his remaining commanders and asks if any of them want to join him, but they decline; none of them had ever really been on speaking terms with the Red-Hair Pirates, and thus do not wish to be around them in their time of grief.

Shanks rather suspects that Marco agrees to come on board _because_ of the grief, because his home in the Moby Dick is now gone and he would otherwise be spending the night in the free room of a dead nakama on board one of the other ships in Whitebeard’s fleet.

Shanks’ crew have the good grace to not crowd them that night, leaving the two captains alone to talk in Shanks’ private quarters rather than up on deck, pouring each other tankards of beer as they discuss the past, not ready to look to the future just yet. Shanks laughs as he recalls each and every time he’s asked Marco to join his crew. Marco refuses him once again when the offer is put to him.

It is well and truly gone midnight when Shanks tugs Marco down to press the blond’s face into his shoulder as Marco’s restraint snaps and he sobs, crying noisy and wet into the other man’s shirt as the mask he wears slips and it all becomes too much - the war, the sight of Ace’s body on the floor, of Whitebeard refusing to lay down, even in death… and the funeral. How Marco had carried Ace himself and laid him in the coffin, smile still on his lips even in death. How it had been him who had collected and mended the red beaded necklace that Ace had always worn. How it had been Marco who had crossed Whitebeard’s hands across his chest before burying him, not a tear shed during the process but feeling like his heart was bleeding inside him.

Marco’s survivor’s guilt is evident as he openly curses his devil fruit power, lamenting how he was able to survive the very same attack that killed Ace, how he was able to survive the war at all. “I wish I had died,” he confesses in a hiss, eyes bright with tears but clear of the drunken haze Shanks would have expected to be there.

Shanks is not surprised when Marco’s lips find his neck and he reciprocates wholly, drawing the other man in close and mouthing a mark to just under his jawline when the blond pointedly turns his face away, knowing he will do whatever it takes to lend Marco even the slightest semblance of comfort tonight.

“Make me forget,” is the instruction he receives, and he will do just that.

He takes the lead at Marco’s request, lube-slicked fingers pressing inside gently as he wonders why the blond will not let him kiss him. A hand gently stops him from trying to do so a second time, a whispered admittance of, “that’s reserved for _him_ ,” and Shanks understands all at once that Marco will likely never feel someone else’s lips to his own again.

Shanks won’t overwrite Marco’s memories of his lover.

He presses in with a groan, their hips flush as sweat beads at his brow, and he rocks slowly into Marco’s welcoming body. A hand to the back of his neck pulls him down as he begins a slow rhythm, and he mouths love-bites to Whitebeard’s mark beneath his teeth.

Finesse and tempo are forgotten as their bodies tangle, as hungry lips drag over heated flesh and raking nails scour red lines along skin. Marco is vocal and open with what he wants from Shanks, what he can’t deal with Shanks doing, and Shanks is OK with this. He does not feign love, but he cannot hide his honest concern and affection for the man he has admired and longed for for such an incredibly long time. Marco comes into his own fist between them, abdomen muscles tightening and his heels pulling at the back of Shanks’ thighs as he trembles, Shanks’ mouth open to his collarbone as he follows Marco into dizzying bliss.

Shanks falls asleep with his arm around Marco, spooning him and running his fingers through blond hair until the steady rhythm of sleep takes over the other captain.

He is not surprised to wake alone the next morning, but is cheered by the note with Marco’s neat scrawl on it propped up against his abandoned tankard, thanking him for chasing away the darkness if only for one night. Confirming that he had not made a mistake in accepting Marco’s advances.

He will see him again, he knows, but as to when, he can only guess. The feeling of Marco’s skin to his own would not leave his memory for a long time, he knows that much.

 

 


End file.
